18th Street Arts Center - Where Art Happens

We are pleased to announce that the Trust for Mutual Understanding and the Asian Cultural Council have awarded 18th Street Arts Center two grants in the amounts of $20,000 and $14,000.

The Trust for Mutual Understanding grant will support “New Media Collaboration V,” a program which brings visiting artists from Eastern Europe to 18th Street to work on new media projects. Polish artists Katarzyna Krakowiak and Maciek Stepinski will be in residence in 2010.

The Asian Cultural Council grant will support the residency of Korean artist Oak Jung Ho. Mr. Ho is known for his provocative public interventions, and he will be exploring the different visual and performance strategies which Los Angeles artists are currently using in their work.

SKATE DECK OF THE MONTH

Check out our latest skatedeck by Alex Kizu on our online store. Alex Kizu (a.k.a. Defer) is one of the pioneers of the LA Graffiti movement who also started K2S... click here!

ARTNIGHT WAS A SUCCESS!
Francisco Aguabella and his Latin Jazz Ensemble dazzled the crowd

The night was a hit with 1,000 guests as they enjoyed Francisco Aguabella and his Latin Jazz Ensemble. Francisco and his crew played with such fluidity and emotion that it captivated the crowd and set the tone for a very relaxing evening. The main gallery with Post-American L.A. was filled throughout the night, the Project Room with Sandra de la Loza's "The Revolution Will..." received many onlookers and curious guests, Chuck Koton's photographs of Jazz musicians was well received as was Jess Koehler's work both in the Pasillo's II and at Highways Performance Space. Speaking of Highways Performance Space, (dub)zeck packed the house throughout the night and truly lived up to it's wacky and great performances. People also wandered vicariously in and out of artist’s studios in residence, sipping on Hpnotiq, Pama, Izze sparkling juice and enjoying Mama's Hot Tamale's.
Learn more about ArtNight

Post-American L.A.
curated by Pilar Tompkins

August 1 - September 25, 2009

Artists include: Carolina Caycedo, Sandra de la Loza, Hugo Hopping, Ashley Hunt, Vincent Johnson, Glenn Ligon, Adrian Paci, Vincent Ramos, and Chen Shaoxiong.
Click here for more info on Post-American L.A.

Post-American L.A. features artists that question the scope and impact of American predominance, from the international stage to municipal politics... Read More

Sandra de la Loza, The Revolution Will...
August 1 - September 25, 2009

Sandra de la Loza, will host a series of encounters and discussions in the Project Room (1629 18th Street, Studio #2) entitled The Revolution Will... bringing together individuals from diverse sectors to interface on topics such as environmentalism, labor and alternative economies, and the future of cultural production.
Click here for more info

Film screening with filmmaker, Elias Serna for her work Footprints on the Asphalt as well as a discussion for the following films:

Films: Footprints on the Asphalt, (44min. 2002). A documentary essay on Chicano/Raza struggles over public space since the Chicano Movement. Reel Polemic: The Visual Rhetoric of Medium Cool, Year of the Pig and 3rd Cinema, (12min, 2009) A short film that explores political violence in 1960’s film. Decolonize (4 min., 2008) music video for the band, Aztlan Underground.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE: CLAYTON CAMPBELL

Clayton Campbell (www.claytoncampbell.com) is a long time artist in residence at 18th Street Arts Center, arriving in 1995. In 1996 he became Co-Executive Director along with Jan Williamson and in 2007 became the first Artistic Director of the center.

A practicing artist since 1975, Clayton is in the long tradition of artists who work in the not for profit sector as arts facilitators, organizers, curators, fundraisers, administrators, and arts writers. He does all of these things, and behind the many hats he wears is his basic philosophy that contemporary artists are ‘cultural producers’ who are able to take care of their own affairs and produce their work. In 2002 Clayton received the award Chevalier, Order of Arts and Lettres from the French government for his work in the field of arts and culture.

This September 11 he will open the interactive photo project, “Words My Son Has Learned Since 9-11” at the WYSPA Institute for Art (www.wyspa.art.pl) in Gdansk, Poland. Previously seen at LACMA Lab in 2006 during the major exhibition “Consider This…”, the words project investigates how people view their future by identifying and being photographed with words they have either learned since 9-11, or words they have known but now have new meanings. This inter-cultural dialogue is part of the WYSPA project, “Inter-Coastal”, is funded by the Trust for Mutual Understanding. Clayton will be sending artist Jasmine Albuquerque on his behalf to Gdansk to conduct an interactive workshop for the exhibition.

VISITING INTERNATIONAL ARTIST IN RESIDENCE:

Chun Yi Chang (Taiwan)
Proudly supported by Asian Cultural Council

Chun-Yi Chang was born in Taiwan and currently resides in Paris, France. As many surrealists before Chang, she plays and delves in the subconscious and conscious world challenging the viewer to rethink their surroundings. There is a certain push and pull of contrasting properties such as the vastness, stiffness and heaviness of a city vs. its size compared to the world, liquidity, and the lightness that a city can have. She is interested in the fleeting moments of time and the natural world that still remains in a bustling city. Between serenity and agitation, movement and static vibration; there is a dialogue of eternal and ephemeral existence where we perceive a reality, usually frightening in our dreams, and dream of a scene as realistic as what we actually see but has moved the numbness and thus has made us placid.

NEWS from ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE (Past & Current)

Bill Rauch, Current Artistic Director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and former co-founder of Cornerstone Theater Company (a past organization in residence) and artistic director from 1986-2006 was recently featured in The New York Times, click here to read the article.

Luciana Abait, Abait's recent solo show at Apama Mackey Gallery in Houston, Texas was a true example of her versatility, whimsical, and idyllic dream world. Click here to view images of her recent works.